Focus Question: To what extent was the Native American boarding school experience successful in assimilating students into mainstream America? Case study: Charles Eastman, Warner Scout, and Jackie Blackface
In the White Man’s Image, DVD. Directed by Christine Lesiak, 1992 In White Man’s Image was an excellent source of information on the assimilation of Native Americans that started when Richard Pratt took 72 Native Warriors to Fort Marian in St. Augustine. In the White Man’s Image describes many individual Native Americans and their experiences at these schools. They show that many die in the process of becoming American and many resist. But the ones that welcome American culture and are assimilated by it, are not welcomed in American culture or Native American culture at all. These people are shunned from it. There is one child, named Ernest, who died from a fever because he didn’t accept any medicine from Richard Pratt, so he basically committed suicide, Richard Pratt was devastated because of this. A quote from Richard Pratt: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was a famous quote from Pratt that he said many times at many meetings, another quote: “Give me 300 young Indians and a school in one of our best communities, and I will show you how to solve the Indian Problem”. Pratt founded Carlisle Indian Institution. In the White Man’s Image, is an excellent source of information for the topic on Native American Boarding schools, it goes into great detail of Pratt’s struggles to assimilate thousands of Native Americans into American culture, and for the most part, succeeded. This source compared to other sources for Native American Assimilation is most likely the best source.
Focus Question: To what extent was the Native American boarding school experience successful in assimilating students into mainstream America? Case study: Charles Eastman, Warner Scout, and Jackie Blackface
Link to my Project:
Annotated Bibliography
Johnson, Bruce E.. “The Boarding Schools,” American Indian History. 1st edition. Vol.1 Barry M. Pritzker. San Francisco: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2008. ©
The source, “The Boarding Schools” in American Indian History Vol. I is very useful to forwarding a project. It supplied detail of Richard Henry Pratt and his accomplishments in continuing the American assimilation project. Pratt was a retired captain in the U.S. army. Pratt founded Carlisle Indian Institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was also the first man to make Indian institutions modeled after boot camps. Pratt had much influence over many other boarding schools, some even in Canada. The information from “The Boarding Schools” from American Indian History Vol. I, was very detailed for just an overview of the American attempt to assimilate Native Americans into “white” culture. This source supplied me with many names of people that were apart of these historic events, such as Warner Scout and Jackie Blackface. This source is reliable because the source is not bias on any point of view since there is no clear view from the author.
Davis Garland. “Indian Affairs” Native America in the twentieth century: an encyclopedia.1st edition volume I. © 1994 Mary B. Davis
The source “Indian Affairs” is a great source to continue your research on generally Indian Affairs, with boarding schools included. This is a great overview for information on Richard Henry Pratt, Carlisle Indian Institution, and the BIA and their work to continue Native American eradication and assimilation. The information in this article does not go into as much detail as the “The Boarding Schools” in American Indian History does. Although, both articles give sufficient information on the topic. The article “Indian Affairs” is a top rate source, it gives excellent information on the topic of Indian boarding schools and in general, Indian Affairs and the BIA. The article’s author has no specific point of view on the topic, only gives an overview of the boarding school affairs.
Meriam, Lewis. "Meriam Report." Feburary 21, 1928.www.fofweb.com (accessed July 23, 2008)
The Meriam Report is a very detailed report of the current standings and a review of the Indian assimilation and the BIA’s work to assimilate these Native Americans. There are many sections of this but the most useful one to an Indian boarding school project would be the “Native American Schools” part. This section describes statistics of Native American schools such as death rate, education, problems, and teachers and staff. At one point in history, many teachers didn’t want to teach Native Americans, and the schools almost failed completely. This massive genocide, described by Lewis Meriam is very detailed with rich information for many Native American topics. The “Meriam Report” was a very useful primary source of information. It supplies the reader with information on many topics. Also, the source is not biased in any way, this was a report made by Lewis Meriam in 1928 to review Native American schools, and he has no specific point of view. Compared with other resources used, this is certainly detailed but broad in some topics.
Reyhner, Allan. "Indian Assimilation Overview." 2006.www.fofweb.com (accessed July 22, 2008).
The “Indian Assimilation Overview” is a great source for information specifically on the Indian Boarding Schools. It describes them as being the best “weapon” that the Americans had for assimilating Native Americans into American culture. It shows us that since 1492, Europeans had the urge to have Native Americans work for them, and become “white”. Many people also describe Native American assimilation as the only way to save them from death. “Indian Assimilation Overview” is an excellent source on boarding schools and their effects and how people thought of them for a research project. It briefly describes the BIA and their progress in forwarding the Native American Assimilation but also describes their efforts were stopped when no non-Native American would pay taxes to fund these efforts. This is a reliable source because the author uses many other primary sources, such as the “Meriam Report”.
In the White Man’s Image, DVD. Directed by Christine Lesiak, 1992
In White Man’s Image was an excellent source of information on the assimilation of Native Americans that started when Richard Pratt took 72 Native Warriors to Fort Marian in St. Augustine. In the White Man’s Image describes many individual Native Americans and their experiences at these schools. They show that many die in the process of becoming American and many resist. But the ones that welcome American culture and are assimilated by it, are not welcomed in American culture or Native American culture at all. These people are shunned from it. There is one child, named Ernest, who died from a fever because he didn’t accept any medicine from Richard Pratt, so he basically committed suicide, Richard Pratt was devastated because of this. A quote from Richard Pratt: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was a famous quote from Pratt that he said many times at many meetings, another quote: “Give me 300 young Indians and a school in one of our best communities, and I will show you how to solve the Indian Problem”. Pratt founded Carlisle Indian Institution. In the White Man’s Image, is an excellent source of information for the topic on Native American Boarding schools, it goes into great detail of Pratt’s struggles to assimilate thousands of Native Americans into American culture, and for the most part, succeeded. This source compared to other sources for Native American Assimilation is most likely the best source.